*sigh*
So, today I was rigging up the extension/adapter harness for the lights on the slab foamy. Little Male to Female Deans thing, with a JSC plug inline for the lights. Simple, right?
So...got everything all lined up, soldered it all together, even remembered the heat shrink! Man..it looked fantastic...really nice job even if I do say so myself.
Except for the male connecter AT EACH END.
Dangit.
Cut heat shrink away, unsolder everything, oull wires away and clean them up, find a female connector, re-tin everything, solder it all back up (AGAIN remembering the heat shrink..4 for 4! I'm on a roll!) and admire things.
Ok, this time it's right!
Hook it up to the ESC, plug the battery in...what on EARTH is that strange smell?!?
Ok...I know what you're thinking...I released the magic smoke, right? NO! WRONG! I DID NOT!
I went right on past magic smoke...and released the MAGIC ELECTRON FLUID.
I've read a lot of threads about how to handle..and not handle...LiPo batteries, and the dangers they pose, and all that. I don't know which ones are true, and which are just stories...but I can assure you of this:
Hooking one up backwards to an ESC is a VERY bad idea.
I have no clue what it takes for a LiPo to start LEAKING FLUID...
...I don't even know what the **** the fluid is (I'm thinking it CAN'T be good) but by God, I did it. This...puddle...started forming around the battery, and it was getting REALLY hot. Apparently, it's possible to release the magic electron fluid before it has a chance to sublimate to magic smoke.
After the panic and mad scramble to unhook things settled down, I surveyed the damage.
[*]The battery is...gooey. That's the only word for it. It was this mixture of solid and...not so solid.[*]The ESC looks fine. It's completely confused, and will never be able to spin a motor again. Oddly, it still arms itself though, and powers the Rx...[*]The motor is, amazingly, just fine. Runs like a charm on a different ESC.[*]The workbench has a nice "dent" in the fiberboard now. Whatever magic electron fluid is composed of, it's pretty caustic...[/list]